Registration Terms

Overview of the Terms & Rules

In overview, these first few paragraphs are general Terms & Rules for the use of the Chiriqui Life website. If you wish more detailed description of our Terms & Rules, then scroll down to the below sections that are labelled "Conditions for Use" and "Specific Rules." We urge you to take a moment to review these rules (and the associated Privacy Policy, along with the Site Guidelines) because your use of this website indicates your understanding of and agreement to comply with all Site Guidelines and our Terms & Rules. You also may want to read our Welcome Aboard message.

Please remember that Chiriqui Life is not responsible for any content posted on this website. We do not vouch for or warrant the accuracy, completeness or usefulness of any message, and are not responsible for the contents of any message.

The messages express the views of the author of the message, not necessarily the views of this website. Any user who feels that a posted message is objectionable is encouraged to contact us immediately by using the "Report Post" link next to the name of the post. We have the ability to remove objectionable messages and we will make every effort to do so, within a reasonable time frame, if we determine that removal is necessary.

You agree, through your use of this service, that you will not use this website to post any material which is knowingly false and/or defamatory, inaccurate, abusive, vulgar, hateful, harassing, obscene, profane, sexually oriented, threatening, invasive of a person's privacy, or otherwise in violation of any law.

Our software uses cookies to distinguish you from other users of our website. This helps us to provide you with a personalized experience when you browse this site.

To use our services, you:

1. Must be at least 13 years old.
2. May need to register with Chiriqui Life to access and use some of our services and information content.
3. Must not initiate or participate in any activities on our services that are illegal, harmful, or interfere with anyone's use of our services.

If you wish to post content on Chiriqui Life, you:

1. May post content that you create, that you own, or that you have been given permission to post by the owner, that is legal, and that doesn't violate our Terms & Rules.
2. Are solely responsible for content that you post to our services and assume all risks of posting personal information online.
3. Continue to own the content that you post, but grant Chiriqui Life an unlimited, non-exclusive, non-cancelable license to use and distribute your content.

The content on Chiriqui Life Is:

1. Owned by us and may only be used as we specify.
2. For general information, discussion, and entertainment purposes only; Chiriqui Life makes no representations or guarantees about the truth, accuracy, applicability, or quality of any content.

You also agree that Chiriqui Life:

1. Can change or terminate our services at any time without notice.

Specific Rules are divided into two categories: Global Rules and Forum Specific Rules. Global Rules apply across the entire website. Forum Specific Rules may be invoked on a forum-by-forum basis as applicable, and are in addition to the Global Rules, but only for that forum.

Global Rules:

1. All members must be treated in a respectful and adult manner. All members should respect and adhere to the promotion of harmony within the community. Do not attempt to disrupt the community in any way. Refer to the Site Guidelines.
2. No “Flaming.” Do not post any content that harasses, insults, belittles, threatens, attacks, vilifies, or flames anyone.
3. No “Trolling.” Do not post any topic that disrupts the peace and harmony of this board. Don't create meaningless threads with the sole purpose of starting a dispute. This includes content in profiles and signatures and the URL links contained therein.
4. No “Spamming.” Please do not double post or cross-post the same content (or essentially the same content) in multiple forums. You will not mass-PM (private message) or mass-email multiple members of this site with the same message. You will not flood post, meaning large numbers of topics or replies of related or unrelated content. You will not post for the sake of increasing your post count or improve your “reputation.” Postings by NewsLady in the dedicated News Boquete repository forum are not counted against regular members in the prohibition of double posting.
5. No excessive “Bumping” (referring to Your threads/posts). Please do not repeatedly bump your threads to try and get attention. Most members of the site are not online 24 hours a day and so will not see your post the instant it is made. Do not bump a thread within 24 hours, and not more than twice a week.
6. No “Bumping” (referring to Other’s threads/posts). Before replying to a thread, take notice of the last post date. Try and avoid replying to posts more than 6 months old. If you have a similar question or comment and cannot find the answer, create your own thread. Generally speaking, due to the progression of time, posts more than 6 months old are more than likely going to be non-applicable to the contemporary situation.
7. Do not abuse the reputation logging system.
8. Do not abuse the reporting of content function.
9. No Offensive Material. Period. Do not post messages that are obscene, vulgar, sexually-oriented, hateful, threatening, racist, sexist, discriminatory, and/or otherwise violate any local or international laws or community standards. This includes links in your signature, profile, posted images, photos and avatars, and URL links contained therein. Management will ultimately decide if something is appropriate or not.
10. No distribution of copyrighted material is to take place on this site without the expressed permission of the copyright holder, which must be attached to the material.
11. No self-promotion. This includes not using the private messaging (PM) functionality for marketing or advertising purposes.
12. Management has complete discretion over what is and is not acceptable on the site. Management decisions are final and not subject to appeal.
13. Public discussions of management decisions are not permitted on the site. If you have any concerns or queries relating to a management decision, please take it up in private with a member of the site administration team.
14. Stay on-topic. Human nature is such that people can easily diverge from a topic or thread. If you need to shift the topic, then start a new topic.
15. Postings may be moved to more appropriate forums at the sole discretion of the management.
16. All postings are subject to moderation, locking, hiding, merging, splitting, and potentially deletion.
17. Once a member has posted something on Chiriqui Life, they have a fifteen (15) minute "grace period" in which to review and edit their content (if/as needed); erasing the entire posting is not permitted. Once that fifteen minute grace period has expired, then the posting is locked. The 15 minute timer does not start until the moment the posting is submitted. Administrators and moderators can edit any content at any time if requested by that member; send a PM (private message) to @Moderator_02 or email support@chiriqui.life. A request by a user to edit a posting by someone else generally will be disregarded. (There is a technical reason behind having a time limit for editing, and it has to do with reducing the possibility of causing broken links in content cross-references, which are fairly important and frequently used in the background here on CL.)
18. Email addresses provided by users during the registration process will be validated prior to activation of an account, and may be re-validated at anytime by staff. Accounts that fail the email validation procedure are subject to closure.
19. Users applying for an account are required to provide a "real name". The real name is different from a chosen user ID (Display Name) for posting purposes. The real name cannot be blank. Once entered, it cannot be changed by the user; administrators can correct data in this field if requested and justified. The real name field is visible to everyone using this website. For a person, the real name consists minimally of a first name and a last name; for a company or business or group or club, the real name must be the public name by which that entity is known, and additionally the name of a person associated with the management of that entity must also be provided. An entry for a real name will be reviewed during the registration process, and must be valid and acceptable to staff prior to activation of a new account. Chiriqui Life reserves the right to request documentation for a claimed real name, and may reject a registration application if documentation is requested but ignored or denied. The real name, the email address, and the IP address that were submitted and used are checked by management against public resources identifying known spammers, etc. [This rule was amended on 24 April 2016.]
20. Check your grammar and spelling. Verify dates and times if applicable. Review your content before posting to be sure that critical information is not missing or misstated. Once posted, content cannot be changed or deleted by a user. For a critical error, administrators and moderators can modify content provided there is sufficient justification.
21. Be aware that English may not be the primary language of those reading your content. Short and simple declarative sentences work best.
22. Content being posted must be related to life in the Chiriqui Province. As an example, topics whose main theme is on gun control in the USA, political positions or opinions or punditry related to any entity outside of Panama, or world economic turmoil are NOT acceptable for this website. If those kinds of content arise incidental to a topic that is about life in the Chiriqui Province, then such content may be acceptable. Postings by blog owners in their blog may be given some leeway regarding the scope of their posted content on a case-by-case basis. Please also see the Forum Specific Rules section at the bottom of this posting. [This rule was clarified on 27 December 2016.]
23. Do not "shout". The Internet equivalent of shouting is to TYPE IN ALL UPPER CASE LETTERS. There are times when all upper case letters are appropriate, such as an abbreviation of a proper name (e.g., BCP or ARF, etc.), or an occasional upper case word for emphasis. However, all upper case letters for topic titles, blog postings, etc., should be avoided, especially and specifically in titles.
24. Postings related to for-profit commercial activities are restricted to the forums channel (typically only within the classified ads category), a non-repeating calendar entry, and possibly one blog at most; a repeating calendar event may be acceptable. Repeating calendar events (of any nature) should be limited to no more than a three month window. There may be special cases in which commercial postings may be acceptable within forums other than the classified ads, and those will be reviewed and decided by management on a case-by-case basis. [This rule added 12 April 2016.]

Forum Specific Rules

Forum Specific Rules apply to the specified categories or forums. Rules specific to a forum will be posted as the title of that forum, or in the header of that forum. Please read the announcements, the title, the description, and any sticky threads/postings in the forums for details.

Forum Specific Rules are in addition to the Global Rules, and do not replace Global Rules, although a Forum Specific Rule may override identified Global Rules.

For example, posting a “want ad” for a used car in the classified ad forum for automobiles is totally acceptable; that is what that forum is about. But asking a question about automobile repair facilities in a forum related to health care resources (as an example) would not be acceptable.

Forum Specific Rules can modify or even suspend specified Global Rules for the designated category or forum.